HDFC Loan in 10s

The Brief

HDFC Bank had launched multiple digital initiatives as part of their transformation in to a "digital bank". They sought an easier way for loans to be disbursed to the consumer. This was vital, since loans formed a large part of the revenue, and increased competition came from other banks – old and new, as well as NBFCs, which were spending large amounts on advertising their loan offerings. HDFC Bank needed to protect its turf and be the preferred Bank of choice for loans, and grow its business.

The Strategy

The question we asked ourselves was: What would be the quickest way to increase loan adoption? To answer this, we went through the loan process ourselves.

The loan process (after filling up the form) is a relatively long one. Given that it's a high risk product, vetting took time. However there was a large audience for who the Bank had their account details,
their balance and likely propensity to pay back.

Hence, our simple but highly effective strategy was: Create a shortened user journey for this 'eligible audience'. Allow her to bypass steps that were not needed in his case, and give her the promise of a much quicker loan.
The overall idea was to make the process paperless and quick.

The eligible loan amount would be pre-calculated and shown to the user while she was using Netbanking – hence shortening the steps further.

This would be promoted to her through NetBanking, when she logs in.

Creativity & Innovation

We wanted to provide tangibility to the benefit, rather than just use generic terms like 'speed' or 'fast'. We did some research, and pushed our technology team to see what the quickest possible disbursal time, from the time the user hit
the final 'submit' button could be.

The answer: 10 seconds. Quicker than writing a Facebook post. Quicker than the time it takes for the average selfie.
Just slower than Usain Bolt's 100m world record.

So, we called this the "Loan in Ten Seconds".

We needed to keep the execution simple and effective, since it would be promoted to existing customers during their NetBanking journey. We developed a dynamic creative, which would calculate how much the customer was eligible for, and show him that amount and interest rate upfront.

The Execution

1. Development of the core product: To bring alive this promise, the technological implementation and coding needed to be extremely robust since all checks/integration with core banking systems happen within seconds and money is disbursed to the account. For this, we developed an engine that would calculate whether a particular customer was eligible for a 10 second personal loan, calculate the amount and interest rate, and display it at the time of NetBanking.

2. Promotion: The dynamic creative banner was executed and hosted on the NetBanking platform so
all eligible customers could see it.

3. Landing page: Once the person clicked the Apply Now button, she would be taken to a landing page with details relevant to her (loan amount, EMI, etc) and her personal details pre-filled in – all to help make her decision easier and application time shorter. Following this, she could select her required loan amount and tenure, and would be automatically
given the fees and EMI.

The Outcome

Every bank offers pre-approved loans today – but thanks to this innovation, only HDFC Bank disburses the amount directly to your account in such a short span of time, without any offline process. And the results were overwhelming. It was the best performing campaigns that the Bank had done over the last year, and was even recognized internally.

The most important result of all – the product itself received an overwhelming response. In the words of HDFC Bank's Sr. EVP Arvind Kapil, "Earlier, we had thought it would take 15 days to catch on, but customers have been delighted and
have given it clear thumbs-up."

It also received lots of media coverage. Among the publications that picked it up were the who's who of financial reporting in the country: MoneyControl, The Hindu, Times of India, Business Today, Hindustan Times, FirstPost,
Business Standard, Trak, and many more.